In 2017 I was the President of the International Association of Meteorology and Atmospheric Sciences (IAMAS) and I attended our Scientific Assembly, which was being held in Cape Town from 27 August to 1 September at the Cape Town International Convention Centre. Ahead of the conference we wanted to do some birding and, after looking at various options, asked Birding Ecotours to arrange a custom tour from Durban to Johannesburg taking in many of the top birding sites in the eastern part of the country.
As can be seen on the above map, the tour started in the port city of Durban and followed the tropical coastal strip to Mkhuze, before moving inland to Wakkerstroom. Day 12 was a long drive to Johannesberg from where we flew to Cape Town for the conference. Details of the birding along the way are given on the sections linked below.
This was an outstanding trip ably led by Dylan Vasapolli who not only guided us, but also did all the driving and even the cooking when we were staying in Mkhuze Game Reserve! He found lots of good birds for us and the whole trip was an excellent prelude to the conference I was attending in Cape Town